Star Wars Galaxy 6 Return Cards

These are four of my Artist Return Cards from the Star Wars Galaxy Series 6 trading card set. All hand-drawn and colored by me. The first card -- Imperial Pilot -- is a special collab card, pencilled by my pal and fellow Topps artist Jason Keith Phillips and then inked and colored by me.

If you're interested in buying any of these, they're first come, first serve -- $200 each. Shoot me an email at grantgoboom@gmail.com with "SWG6 ARTIST RETURN CARD" in the subject line. Thanks!

UPDATE:
I posted new cards with updated info. Please head on over to this link! :)

Star Wars Galaxy 6, base card art

Here's a look at my base card for the Star Wars Galaxy 6 set, which comes out early next month. I submitted a few ideas to Topps, and this is the one my editor wanted me to run with -- It's a glimpse at a younger Obi-Wan and Satine, along with Qui-Gon Jinn. In the Clone Wars cartoon, we're introduced to Duchess Satine and learn that years earlier, the Republic had sent Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan to Mandalore to protect her for a year, during a time of Mandalorian civil war. Obi-Wan and the duchess developed strong feelings for each other, but ultimately - as we know - he chose the Jedi path.

Galaxy 6 Sketchagraphs

I was one of 22 artists selected by Topps to do some "sketchagraph" cards, which are new inserts for Galaxy 6 (very rare, from what I understand: 1 in every 135 packs) featuring an authentic signature from a Star Wars actor along with an original sketch by the artist. Here's a look at 7 of my 40 sketchagraphs:






The list of signers includes:
Mark Hamill (Luke Skywalker)
Carrie Fisher (Princess Leia)
Ray Park (Darth Maul)
Jake Lloyd (Episode 1 Anakin Skywalker)
Orli Shoshan (Shaak Ti)
Amy Allen (Aayla Secura)
Jon Berg (FX artist, cantina creature actor)
John Morton (Dack Ralter)
Mike Quinn (Puppeteer: Sy Snootles, Nien Nunb & more)

I did 2 of Mark Hamill's, 3 of Carrie Fisher's, and 5 of everyone else's (I think everyone had these same ratios). Basically Topps had the actors sign the cards in advance, then sent the cards to the artists -- so it's a pretty fun concept. Hopefully people will enjoy them. I believe Star Wars Galaxy 6 begins shipping in early March. I'll post more info soon. :)

Dwarf Character Sketch

Doodled up between jobs.

Star Wars Valentines

Break out the roses and the chocolates, Valentine's Day is almost upon us, and once again, StarWars.com has posted up some print-ready cards created by me. :) Click here to check 'em out!

7 Steps: From Pencil Sketch to Digital Colors

Here's a quick behind-the-scenes look at the image I posted a few days ago. This is a really simplified run-through, so if you have any specific questions, feel free to ask in the comments.


Step 1: I begin with a pencil sketch (oftentimes a thumbnail and then a sketch, but in this particular case, I skipped the thumbnail). I use a blue pencil, but I figured I'd switch it to greyscale here so you can see the lines more easily. My blue pencil lines are usually pretty light and loose.


Step 2: I ink over my pencil lines with a Faber-Castell Pitt brush pen. I'm not the best inker in the world, so I rely on my coloring to hopefully make it look halfway decent in the end. :)


Step 3: I scan my drawing into Photoshop. I have a small scanner, so if I draw on an 11"x17" (like I did with this one) then I scan it in pieces and have to assemble to image in Photoshop. I use the adjustment settings to get rid of my blue pencil lines so that only the black brush lines are showing, and clean up the art a bit if need be.


Step 4: I create a "multiply" layer and add in all my color flats. I basically just take my lasso tool and use it to select areas then fill them in.


Step 5: I add in my shading and some details, such as the girl's eyes.


Step 6: I throw some color in the background, add some coverups and mess with opacities, new layers, shines, etc. Honestly, this is where I start to do the most experimenting and playing around. Happy accidents. It's the beautiful thing about digital coloring.


Step 7: Typically I'll do at least a little bit of color adjusting at the end. There are features under the "image" option in the toolbar, or "photo filters." They can really breathe some extra life into your art -- make it warmer, or more gloomy, or colder. Anyway, once I've played a bit with the color adjustments, I'll do last-minute edits here and there, and that's about it.

Obviously, there are a trillion different ways to do digital coloring. I'm not claiming my methods are the best (I know they're definitely not the fastest). You just have to play around and find what works best for you, with the tools you have. Learn from my mistakes! Haha :)

Blast from the past: 2004

I was going through some old disks tonight, and found these pages I'd done for my (never published) fantasy comic. I don't think I ever showed these before, so I thought it'd be fun to post 'em now. :) These were drawn over six years ago, back when I used to ink with Uni-ball fine tip pens and Sharpies. I guess those Uni-balls did the trick, but - yikes - thinking about it now makes me cringe.

"Wolves of Odin" (Non-)Update

It's been about 6 months since my last WoO update, so here's the scoop on where I'm at. My goal was to have it done by end of winter so that it could hopefully be printed by summer/San Diego Comic-Con, but... yeah, that's just not happening. I've been too busy with Lucasfilm work and Topps cards and commissions and whatever else. I haven't been able to carve out the time.

The good news is: I've written the story, the outline's all set. It's just a matter of drawing the thing.

Awhile back I asked my pal Matt Goodmanson if he'd be interested in drawing it. We've been collaborating on nerdy little fantasy projects (that never seem to see the light of day) for years, and I absolutely love his style, and I thought he'd be an awesome fit. Here's a sample page that he did:



Unfortunately, time is the enemy. Matt has a little kid and is a busy man, and it was just hard to get anything rolling.

So who knows... At this point I can't map out when exactly a new "Wolves of Odin" book will be coming out. I can't for sure say if I'll be drawing it when it does. I mean, if Matt suddenly finds a big chunk of free time and is willing to illustrate the book, I would be all over that! (Or if someone else out there really wants to draw it and submits some art to me and I'm blown away by it, and they understand that there's no pay involved, well, I'd certainly have an open mind to that.) So it's all up in the air.

I wish I had more solid news for you, folks, but that's where we're at. WoO2 is in limbo. Personal projects have to take a backseat to jobs that pay the bills. As always, I'll keep you posted if/when anything changes.

~~~
By the way, if you're reading all this and wondering, What the heck is 'Wolves of Odin'? -- it's a graphic novella I wrote and drew back in 2008, published by SRG, and you can order it over at wolvesofodin.com